Hubert Geralds, Jr.

Herbert Geralds, Jr., 34, was convicted by a jury on November 14, 1997, of murdering six women in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. The first victim, Rhonda King, 18, was found strangled to death on December 21, 1994. The last, Mary Blackman, 42, was found strangled on June 17, 1995. Geralds was arrested the next day.

Under interrogation by police, he confessed to all six murders. After a three week trial, the jury found nothing in mitigation to preclude imposition of the death penalty, and on January 9, 1998, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Michael P. Toomin sentenced Geralds to death.

On February 10, 2000, prosecutors moved to vacate the conviction for the King murder after DNA linked her death to a different serial killer, Andre Crawford. Geralds remained on death row for the other five murders until January 11, 2003, when Governor George H. Ryan commuted his sentence, and those of more than 150 other death row prisoners, to life in prison without parole.

— Rob Warden